Eyewitness
to Genocide in Kosovo: Kosovo-Metohija and the Skenderbeg Division
SERBIANNA.COM LINK
by Carl Savich

Introduction

The
historical and political precedent for the creation of a Greater Albania
was set during World War II when the Kosovo-Metohija region, along with
territory in southwestY Montenegro andY western Macedonia (then Southern
Serbia, now part of Macedonia, but a part of Stara Srbija in the medieval
period), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers, fascist Italy and
Nazi Germany under a planY by AdolfY Hitler and Benito MussoliniY to
dismember Yugoslavia.The Kosovska Mitrovica region was retained under
German occupation because of the Trepca mines. The districts of Vucitrn,
Lab, and Dezevo or Novi Pazar were made part of the Kosovo Department.
The Tetovo, Debar, Struga, Gostivar regions of western Macedonia were
ceded to a Greater Albania under Italian administration. The Gnjilane,
Vitin, and Kacanik districts were ceded by Germany to Bulgaria to administer.
In the initial stages of the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija,YGermany
organized a police force of approximately 1,000 Kosovar Albanians and
Albanian paramilitary forces of the same number known as Vulnetara.
During the Italian administration from 1941-1943, Kosovo Serbs, Jews,
Gypsies, and other non-Albanians were arrested, interned, deported,
or murdered. Serbian houses were burned and Serbian inhabitants were
driven out of Kosovo. Dozens of Serbian Orthodox churches were demolished
and looted. Over 10,000 Kosovo Serb and Montenegrin families were driven
out of Kosovo by Albanians who wereY put in charge of Kosovo-Metohija
by the Italian and German forces.Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins were
deported to forced labor camps in Pristina and in Mitrovica to work
the Trepca mines and to Albania to work on construction projects as
forced or slave labor. The Italian regime encouraged the kosovo.netmittee
and the Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union) to create an ethnically
pure Albanian Kosovo as part of a Greater Albania. The government and
police were made up of Albanians while the Albanian language and the
Albanian flag were permitted in Kosovo-Metohija.Germany assumed direct
control and re-occupied Kosovo when Italy surrendered in 1943.

On
April 17,1944, pursuant to instructions by Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich
Himmler, an Albanian Waffen SS Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division
der SS 'Skanderbeg' or 'Skenderbeg' (Albanische Nr.1), was formed, which
occupied and ethnically cleansed Kosovo-Metohija of Orthodox Serbs,
Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians. Himmler envisioned the formation
of two Albanian SS Divisions, but the war ended before the second could
be formed. Approximately 300 Albanian troops in the Bosnian Muslim 13th
Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS 'Handzar' or 'Handschar' were transferred
to the newly forming SS division. The Skanderbeg Division was made up
of 6,491 ethnic Albanians, two-thirds of whom were from Kosovo-Metohija,
'Kosovars'. To this Albanian core were added German troops,Reichdeutsche
from Austria and Volkdeutsche officers, NCOs and enlisted men transferred
from the 7th SS Mountain Division 'Prinz Eugen' or 'Princ Eugen', then
stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina. TheYSkanderbeg Division was made up
of Albanian Muslims of the Bektashi and Sunni sects of Islam and several
hundred Albanian Roman Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni. The total
strength of the Skanderbeg Division was 8,500-9,000 men of all ranks.

The
first commander of the Skanderbeg Division was SS Brigadefuehrer and
Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum, from April to June, 1944.
In June,1944, SS Standartenfuehrer August Schmidhuber, formerly an officer
in the Prinz Eugen 7thYSS Division, was appointed division commander
until August 1944, when SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Alfred Graf (or Graaf)
assumed command of the remanants of the division until May 1945.

The
Skanderbeg Division engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide
against the Serbian Orthodox Christian and Jewish populations of Kosovo-Metohija
and the Stara Srbija region. In Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg Division
massacred unarmed Serbian civilians with impunity and indiscriminately
in a systematic plan of genocide. The Skanderbeg Division sought to
create an ethnically pure Kosovo-Metohija, 'Kosova' or 'Kosove', cleansed
of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, the untermenschen (subhumans)
rayah targeted for extermination. The Skanderbeg Dision played a role
in the Holocaust or Final Solution when, during its occupation of Kosovo-Metohija,
it rounded up scores of Kosovo Jews and Orthodox Serbs, persons deemed
enemies of the Third Reich, who were subsequently deported to concentration
camps.

With
the surrender of Italy in 1943, Germany re-occupied Kosovo-Metohija
and German occupation forces sought to strengthen Albanian nationalist
groups and to recruit Albanians into German forces. On September 16,
1943, Dzafer Deva, a member of the Balli Kombetar, organized the Second
League of PrizrenY ''in cooperation with the German occupation authorities'
which intensified its efforts to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of Serbs
and Jews and other non-Albanians. Attacks against Kosovo Serbs increased
and intensified. Over 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families were driven out
of Kosovo. The Balli Kombetar and the Second League of Prizren were
instrumental in the creation of the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der
SS 'Skanderbeg', which was envisioned as advancing the cause of Greater
Albania by making Kosovo ethnically pure, cleansed of Serbs and Jews.

When
Germany re-occupied Kosovo and Albania following the collapse of Italy
in 1943, the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS sought to integrate
the manpower into the German forces. Himmler wanted to use the Albanian
manpower to form two Waffen SS Divisions. Moreover, 'anthropological
studies' by the Italians during 1939-1943 purported to show that the
Ghegs of northern Albania and Kosovo-Metohija were Aryans, herrenvolk,
the master race, who had preserved their racial purity for over two
millennia. Thus, from a practical and theoretical standpoint, Himmler
was determined to form two Albanian SS Dvisions.

Bedri
Pejani, the president of the Second League of Prizen, wrote Himmler
a letter of March 19, 1944, asking that Himmler organize Albanian military
formations as part of the armed forces of the Third Reich:

Excellency,
the central committee of the Second Albanian League of Prizren has authorized
me to inform you that only your excellency is united with the Second
Albanian League, that you should form this army, which will be able
to safeguard the borders of Kosovo and liberate the surrounding regions...
Bedri Pejani

Hans
Lammers sent Pejaniis letter to Himmler, who wrote Lammers about the
planned formation of the two Kosovar Albanian SS Divisions:

Most
respected party friend Lammers! I received your letter ofY April 29
together with the letter of the president of the central committee of
the Second Albanian League of Prizren. At this time one Albanian division
is being formed. As things now stand, I plan to form a second division,
and afterwards an Albanian corps will be formed...
Heil Hitler!
Yours very faithfully,
H. Himmler

The
21st SS Division Skanderbeg was formed and trained in Kosovo and was
made up primarily of Muslim Albanians from Kosovo, over two-thirds of
the personnel were from Kosovo.

During
WWII, Kosovo was under Italian occupation - as well as Albania itself.
Albania + Kosovo + Western Macedonia, all under Italian occupation
was officially caled "Greater Albania". In Kosovo part
of this fascist structure the Albanian nationalists got free hand
to terrorize the Serbs. Under such pressure estimated 75,000 Serbs
left Kosovo. In their empty houses about the same number of Albanians
from Albania settled. This definitelly tipped the ballance in the
Albanian favour. The first official census in post-WWII Yugoslavia
(in 1948) showed 199,961 Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo and 498,242
Albanians.

Eyewitness
to Genocide

On
July 28, 1944 in the village of Velika in the Lim region of Montenegro,Y
Skanderbeg massacred 428 Serbs of which 120 were children and burned
around 300 houses during Operation Draufgegner, in a joint attack with
the 7th Prinz Eugen Division. Milunka Vucetic was an eyewitness, whoseYaccount
of the massacre follows:

I
approached the house of Milovan Vucetic. Around afternoon an army from
Ivanpolje came into the area.We decided to take them bread, salt, which
we had.

When
the army approached, I saw how in the olive grove Tomislav, the son
of Milovan Vucetic, played. Two soldiers took him, a third ran over...
one took out a knife and began to skin the child alive from his eyes
downwards. I could not watch what occurred. I began screaming and his
mother Leposava-Lepa ran over to protect him. She was killed.

Radoje
Knezevic, who survived the massacre, recalled:

I
was only 11 years old when Hitleris Division 'Skanderbeg' and 'Prinz
Eugen' burned down the village of Velika and killed about 428 persons.
Our family paid a heavy price that day.

On
that day my mother Stojanka was killed and then her body burned. The
same fate befell my two brothers Nedeljko (5 years old) and Ratko (
11 months old). My sister Raba ( 18 years old) was killed as she was
trying to protect her mother and young brothers. And she too was burned.

Draguna
Knezevic gave the following account:

In
the house of Andra Knezevic were killed Mona Stamatovic...and Toma Savic
with her daughter... In the house of Leka Knezevic, Stojanka Knezevic
(aged 42), her daughter Rabija (18 years old) and sons Nedjelko (6 years
old) and Ratko (1 year old).

In
the house of Ljuba Stamatovic Miroslava Stamatovic (50) was killed.

In
the house of Janka Simonovic, his two daughters, Kosa (18), and Milojka
(19) were killed. Milojka was thrown alive into a fire. In the house
of Radote Simonovic, his daughter Milena (20) was killed... In the house
of Nikola Tomovic, his wife Rabija and his daughter Milica, who was
five years old were killed. Milica was killed outside and thrown in
a fire, in the house.

Divna
Vucetic, a resident of Velika, gave the following account of events
during the massacre:

...I
heard news of massacres in the surrounding villages so I became concerned
for the safety of my children, the two eldest of whom I sent in the
woods... I held in my lap my one year old son, Boza. On the threshold
my daughter Persida approached, who was only three years old, and after
her my two nieces, four year old Kata and three year old Nata, and daughters
Cvete and Dusana Vucetic.

...A
soldier approached with a gun... I told him that I wanted to bring him
bread, as I was ordered to. He replied to that:Y'Germany has bread!'
He spoke our language perfectly. He then shot at me, killing my son
Boza in my lap, and wounding me in the right hand.

The
Kosovar Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division drove out or ethnically cleansed
approximately 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families, most of whom fled as refugees
to Serbia while Albanian colonists from Albania entered Kosovo and took
over their lands, homes, and possessions.In Between Serb and Albanian:
A History of Kosovo, Miranda Vickers described the ethnic cleansing
of the Skanderbeg SS Division as follows:

Until
the first months of 1944 there were continued waves of migration from
Kosovo of Serbs and Montenegrins, forced to flee following intimidation...
The 21st SS 'Skanderbeg Division' (consisting, as already mentioned,
of two battalions) formed out of Albanian volunteers in the spring of
1944, indiscriminately killed Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo. This
led to the emigration of an estimated 10,000 Slav families, most of
whom went to Serbia... replaced by new colonists from the poorer regions
of northern Albania.

The
Skanderbeg Division engaged in acts or war crimes against the Kosovo
Serbian population that constituted genocide and crimes against humanity.

The
Skenderbeg SS Division and the Holocaust

The
21st SS Division Skanderbeg played a role in the Holocaust or Shoah,
the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,the extermination of European
Jewry. The first operation of Skanderbeg in Kosovo-Metohija was the
raid on Kosovo Jews in Pristina which occurred on May 14,1944. The Albanian
Kosovar SS troops raided apartments and homes where Kosovo Jews lived,
looted their possessions, and rounded them up for deportation to the
death camps. Kosovo Jews were subsequently placed in makeshift jails.
The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg apprehended 281 Kosovo Jews, which included
men, women, and children. From May to June 1944, Skanderbeg apprehended
a total of 519 Kosovo Serbs and Jews.

During
the initial German occupation of Pristina in 1941 before it was turned
over to Italian administration, the property of Kosovo Jews was seized
and they were conscripted for forced labor like Kosovo Serbs. In Kosovska
Mitrovica, Jewish shops and stores were closed down and Kosovo Jews
were ordered to wear a yellow band to identify themselves as Jews. The
seizure of Jewish property was organized and conducted by the Gestapo
and members of the Albanian Committee. On May 20, 1941, Dzafer Deva,
the leader of the Mitrovica district, ordered the seizure of Jewish
property. Jewish businesses were supervised by members of the Albanian
Committee. The seizure of Jewish businesses and property was conducted
by Mamut Perijuc, Ramiz Mulic and Osman Ibrahimovic, who worked in conjuction
with the German Gestapo. Ibrahimovic was the head of the commission
overseeing Jewish property. He ordered the demolition of the Jewish
synagogue and the destruction of papers and documents in the Jewish
archive. In Pristina, the seizure of Jewish property and anti-Jewish
measures were undertaken by the Kosovar Albanian regime placed in control
and members of the Albanian kosovo.netmittee, Maljus Kosova, president
of the Committee, Dzemal beg Ismail Kanli, head of the police, Rasid
Memedali, and Rifat Sukri Ramadan.

Yugoslav
Jewish survivors blame the Kosovar Albanian Committee for inciting the
first and second internments of Kosovo Jews. In the Jewish historical
archives of Yugoslavia, the role of the 21st SS Division in the Holocaust
and in the genocide of Kosovo Jews and Serbs is described as follows:Y
''From May 25 to July 2, 1944 the Division 'Skanderbeg' apprehended
510 Jews, Serbs... They were put in jails, while 249 were sent as forced
laborers to the Reich.''

The
Skanderbeg Division played a hitherto unacknowledged role in the Holocaust,
the genocide of European Jewry. In Kosovo: A Short History, Noel Malcolm
noted that in the Djakovica region of Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg
Division engaged in ''the round-up and deportation of 281 Jews'' to
the concentration-extermination camps in May 1944.Y According to Malcolm,
''they took part in the most shameful episode in Kosovois wartime history.''
Malcolm, for the most part, ignored the actions or war crimes of the
Skanderbeg Division against the Kosovo Serbian population during the
same period. Of these 281 Kosovo Jews which the Kosovars deported, more
than 200 were killed by the Germans at the Nazi death camp of Belsen.
By 1945, 210 of the 551 Kosovo Jews known to reside in Kosovo had been
killed.The division sought to create an ethnically pure, homogenous
Kosovo, supported by Italy and Germany, a Kosovo ethnically cleansed
of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians, the untermenschen
rayah, not part of ''enlightened Latin Christendom'', not part of the
so-called West, not Aryans, but Slavs, who were targeted for extermination.

Conclusion

During
the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany during World War II,
an Albanian Waffen SS Division, Skanderbeg, was formed which committed
war crimes against the Serbian Orthodox and Jewish populations which
constituted genocide and crimes against humanity. The Skanderbeg Division
engaged in a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovo
Serbian and Jewish populations. This genocide contributed to the Albanian
goal and policy to create an ethnically pure and homogenous Kosovo.